"have you ever heard of that one dog that got rabies then a week later everydog in the nieghborhood had rabies too? no you havent because bites are a lowsy way to spread a virus. which is why you are correct in your assumption.

the zombie virus could be spread throughout the world if it was intentionally spread by a conspiracy. or maybe it comes in on a comet. the comet explodes on the surface of the earth and spread the spores around the world
"

"we have survived worse impacts"

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event"

"(3–6 mi) above the Earth's surface, I assumed you were talking about direct impact"

"Recommend Professor Christopher Duncan's (controversial) books about virology and the 1300's black death.

To sum it up briefly he proposed a highly contagious haemorrhagic virus (Lhasa fever/Marburg sort of thing) with a 3 week incubation period allowed the pandemic to maintain a steady 5 miles a day across some very sparsely populated parts of Europe.

And I'm recommending because if he was right then almost everything we thought we knew about the most famous and lethal disease in history was wrong. Now there's a thought. . .
_"

"I've been doing some calculations of an entirely human virus overcoming a city. And I just don't see it happening, at least here in the US, just about everyone has a gun and people will quickly learn that a bite is equivalent to a zombie.

So the only way a zombie virus could successfully stay alive in a single city, let alone travel to another city. Would be something along the lines of,
* A long to very long gestation time.
* An animal helping spread it(Rats, mice, birds).
* Or being airborne.
* Food or water contamination.
* Even an STI(STD) would be more effective than a bite(As long as they don't show signs immediately).

Now, I'm sure there are other ways it could spread and essentially overcome a human population. But without some "special weapon" a zombie virus spread by bite just wouldn't be viable.

Thoughts? Criticisms?

EDIT: And this isn't even taking into account military or police."

"I agree, first of all, the average person can usually stop someone from biting them, secondly if they cant, they can attract enough attention to get help."

"And we could spot infected people?

More importantly depending on the mental state they could just as easily shoot back.

In addition while it is true that a lot of people have guns it's very much regional. As in you have one region where a lot of guns are present and then another where few have them.

Secondly humans in general are not primed for violence against human beings. So don't think that it will pan out as people immediatly reacting to the threat with appropriate force.

As for gestation time humans have become very a mobile species. An outbreak in Tokyo or other business center could spread it worldwide."